How to Trust Yourself and Strengthen Your Intuition

Over and over people write to me or tell me (when we speak in person) that they want to trust themselves – their bodies, their intuition, their gut. Also, the guidance they receive from Spirit.

They want to know whether what they are hearing/feeling/seeing/sensing is real. They want to know “how” to discern truth from imagination or ‘some voice in their head’.

As a person who has spent a good part of my life disconnected from my body and therefore my intuition and inner guidance, I can deeply relate to this desire… and to the pain of NOT fully trusting oneself.

For me, this distrust has shown up in various ways in my life:

An inability to make decisions – from what to eat for dinner to whether or not to become a mother and everything in between.

Second-guessing and/or regretting every decision I did make.

Expecting others to affirm my own worth (or the value of my work).

Wanting others (or google) to confirm any guidance I receive.

Trying to determine whether this person or that situation was ‘right’ for me using logic or mental gymnastics.

Inability to complete projects or other creative endeavors.

In short, knowing/feeling what was right for me was nearly impossible.

I would have occasional moments of great clarity; and act on them… with good results.

This is how I ended up becoming an Ortho-Bionomy practitioner (body-centered pain and trauma resolution work). Also, why I left a solid, long-term relationship (to eventually marry my husband). And, why I first started engaging with my ancestors.

These were all pivotal moments in my life where my intuition (or the message) was so loud that I couldn’t dismiss it.

The day-to-day, however, was often tedious, exhausting, filled with self-doubt, second-guessing, and an inability to make decisions or headway on creative projects.

From what I’m hearing from many of you, I’m not alone in this. And, I have some good news.

First, though, let’s talk (very) briefly about trauma.

The root of lack of self-trust is unresolved trauma.

Unresolved trauma disconnects us from our bodies.

When we are disconnected from our bodies, we can’t feel what is right for us. We no longer have that felt-sense of either expansion/relaxation or tension/constriction in our bodies to guide us.

When we are connected to our bodies, our bodies provide reliable information about everything – from ‘should I go on a date with this person?’ to ‘what’s for dinner?’ to ‘what is my life-path?’.

We know what is right for us because we can feel it. When we feel it, we can trust it.

No amount of research, talking it through, or making pro/con lists is going to help us access deep self-trust. Fully feeling a Yes or No in our bodies does.

Even better, the more embodied we are, the more we simply know when the guidance we are receiving is from spirit/source or from some wounded fragment of ourselves. Again, we know because these two things feel very different in our bodies.

So, what’s the path forward?

Here’s the good news:

Trauma can be resolved. Self-trust and intuition can be reclaimed.

While the disconnecting trauma may be from our own lives, in my experience, the majority of it flows to us from the unresolved wounds of our ancestors.

Working to repair our lineages, to resolve the trauma at that level, leads to a huge shift in our ability to connect with our bodies, trust what we sense, and receive clear guidance and inspiration.

Consciously choosing to trust what we sense/feel while directly engaging the Ancestors; and

Directly resolving the root of this distrust (the original wound or trauma) on a lineage level.

Doing this work naturally leads to strengthened intuition, a greater sense of connection and ease within our bodies, and an increased ability to trust ourselves and our own inner knowing.

ps. I want you to know, deep in your bones, that no matter how disconnected you might feel from your body and your intuition in this moment, that this can change. You can fully reclaim self-trust and intuition.